China Holds Key to Glasenberg’s Designs on Rio Tinto

The road to realizing Ivan Glasenberg’s ambitions to create the world’s biggest mining company by merging Glencore Plc with Rio Tinto Group may run through Beijing.

With London-based Rio rejecting Glasenberg’s July approach, Glencore went directly to Rio’s biggest shareholder -- state-owned Aluminum Corp. of China, widely known as Chinalco. While the company’s 9.8 percent stake is important in determining Rio’s future, the view of its ultimate owner, China’s government, is even more crucial.